Friday 05 April 2024.

Friday 05 April 2024. STAYING RELEVANT live at Shepherds Bush Empire. Sam Thompson and Pete Wicks take their chart-topping podcast Staying Relevant on tour. During the show, as well as learning first-hand about the perils and pitfalls of fame from two best friends in the industry, there will be plenty of interactive moments. Expect lots of laughs but mostly utter chaos as the boys look back at their careers and share their hopes and dreams. The pair first met up a few years ago on Celebs Go Dating TV show . ------- It is stalls seated tonight, and pretty full , so must be over 1000 folks here . Some 75 % of the crowd are excitable females under the age of 30 ,who are keeping the bar staff busy , and nipping into the mens loos as the female toilet queues are a bit lengthy. The show is on for two sets of 50 mins. There is a fully stocked bar on the side of Pete Wicks. The first set is basically them showing video highlights of their careers on the big screen , and talking and joking about them , including when Sam Thompson won I'm A Celebrity and Pete Wicks flew out to Australia to meet him. Good to see male and female signing for deaf at the front.SamThompson has the very upbeat personality , and Pete Wicks has the long haired rock star looks. Second set had done audience participation as two pairs came on stage for ' The Seat of Shame'. Then there was a Q & A session with the audience. Finale of the night is special guest Barry( SHAUN WILLIAMSON ) from EastEnders , who comes on stage and the three of them and the crowd sing a rousing cover of ' Sweet Caroline'. VICKY PATTTISON was seated in the stalls seats. An enjoyable evening. ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ Thursday 04 April 2024. JOE BONAMASSA live at The Royal Albert Hall. Joe plays the first of two shows at this venue. Celebrated and award-winning blues rock guitarist and singer songwriter, Joe Bonamassa will be performing two UK exclusive concerts at the Hall. Backed by a stellar band of legendary musicians, the setlist for this show will feature new songs alongside career-spanning favourite’s. I have seen him a few times before at this venue. Joe always seems to ask silly prices for tickets when he plays this venue....£70 for gallery standing up in the gods and £200 , £175 , £150 and £100 for seats plus booking fees...maybe there is struggle to sell tickets as there has been heavy advertising in all the papers in the run up to the shows . --------- Several rows are unsold downstairs and only 75% sold up in the circle , half the boxes are unsold , but still pretty good considering the eye-watering high ticket prices. We have a great view in those nice stalls swivel seats. JOE BONAMASSA on stage at 7.30pm for two hours. Taking to the stage to rapturous applause, Joe donned one of the guitars from his enormous collection and set the room alight straight away. His playing was slick, deadly accurate and exuded cool! This suit and shades wearing blues man owned every note of the sound, and every inch of the stage. Pretty much every track had a stunning guitar solo. His band and two female backing singers were also top notch . It is 15 years since his first show at this iconic venue, and Joe said these two shows would be his 11th and 12th here. The first encore was his classic ' Sloe Gin' which was dedicated to Bernie Marsden R.I.P. and the second encore was a superb version of ' Crossroads' . A great show.

Posted 4th April 2024